Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Watching baseball at 9am on a Wednesday while working from home feels like getting away with something. It shouldn’t happen, but it feels good. I got to watch the Padres beat the Marlins yesterday 6-4 over eggs and it gave me a chance to listen to the MLB network objectively call the game. Overall, they were similarly optimistic about the future of the Padres. Like the local announcers Dick Enberg and Mudcat, the MLB guys couldn’t shut up about David Eckstein and the fire he has lit under the young team from America’s finest city often saying that he does the little things that are hard to see. Why not? The streak was fun. 8 games in a row was a great week and a half. However, for me, the best thing about that period of time was that it allowed me to focus on the NFL Draft. It was a Charger weekend and the Pads played well enough to not add to the anxiety. I guess it was kinda like having a criminal teenager who decided to behave and not get arrested during a weekend where there was a wedding in the family.

Obviously the results of any draft are impossible to gauge. We won’t know how good the decisions were until a few years from now. RB Ryan Matthews is big and fast and allowed me to fantasize about what it would feel like to have Adrian Peterson. I am not saying that he will be AP, but it crossed my mind. It seems very possible that he could be at least as effective as Marian Barber, which wouldn’t suck with our passing game.

The rest of the Chargers’ draft consisted of picks that filled holes in every phase of the defense, except for a the 5th round where AJ threw a QB from Tennessee at Norv Turner just to keep his mind busy. It was a nice little project pick, that was sort of like dropping off a puzzle for your dying grandpa to play with at his retirement home.

A.J. Smith’s jump up to the 12th pick was clearly the highlight for the franchise, but it was nothing compared to the pick the Broncos made at 24. Tim Tebow is coming to the AFC West and we all know it is going to be a circus. I always thought that Tim Tebow’s best move would have been to swear off the NFL, saying it was not what he wanted to do in his life, and then sign a huge Christian book deal. Then he could help kids, continue to circumcise babies in the Philippines and then angle his way to become the Governor of Florida. He could be stealing elections by his 30s. And most importantly, nobody would have to watch him fail at the next level. But no, he is going for it, and the Broncos are believers.

As a lifelong Padres fan, it has been really hard listening to every person calling the Padres games waxing on about David Eckstein’s grit and the little things he brings to the table. But at least he has something to do with the outcome of the game. I know that it has been a popular thing on this site to mock the media’s tireless love affair with him (I started it and I plan on finishing it), but to his credit, he is always on the field and he actually contributes. The best thing about the Broncos pick isn’t that Tim Tebow will likely never make it, it is that the National media is going to go bonkers during his games when he isn’t going to be doing anything. It will be fun to watch a rival fanbase deal with that crap in a worse, more unfulfilling situation.

Last week, a Dodger fan friend of mine jokingly said he was going to the David Eckstein Bobblehead Night because he wanted a physical reminder of what it means to work hard and “care”. Dodgers’ fans living in SD often use sarcasm well and I can find myself laughing at their jokes, even if they are directed at my fan base. But now I feel the same way. The Broncos players and fans are going to be overwhelmed with Tebowmania and it is going to get them nowhere. I can’t wait for the first Chargers Broncos game and hear Phil Simms give his PHILosophy, saying I can tell Tim Tebow’s magic is already affecting this locker room. Then one of two things will probably happen: San Diego will stomp them or the Chargers will lose the ball in the redzone on a fumble that didn’t happen. Then Tebow will waive his arm to the press box and the power will go out in the review booth and then the Broncos will get the ball. Sometimes shit doesn’t work, but also, sometimes God gets involved.

Whatever. It was a good weekend..

Posted by
nick mccann

3 comments:

Anonymous
said...

The hardest thing about being a Broncos fan and a Padres fan is that I unfortunately have to deal with the cross sports smack talk. It hasn't been much of a rivalry in recent years, hell the Chargers own us. Invesco Field has sort of become Qualcomm "east", this may suck being a die hard Broncos fan and all but it sure doesn't compare to seeing my team win their first ever Super Bowl in the World's Finest City Sunny San Diego 12 rows up on the 50 yard line in the house formerly known as "The Murph". Good luck this year Chargers!

kurt bevacqua is to 1984 as oscar salazar is to 2010. you never know when you're going to see him, but when you do, you know he's going to swing out of his ass... and yet still give you a great at-bat.

NOTE: I never saw kurt bevacqua hit, but i'm assuming that he swung hard.